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Secretive Russian military satellites release mystery object into orbit
Space.com ^ | April 03, 2025 | Andrew Jones

Posted on 04/03/2025 8:27:15 AM PDT by Red Badger

An Angara 1.2 rocket launches the Kosmos 2560 satellite, thought to be called EMKA-3, into orbit from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia on Oct. 15, 2022. Another trio in the Kosmos series — Kosmos 2581, 2582 and 2583 — launched in February 2025 and shortly thereafter released a mystery object into orbit. (Image credit: Roscosmos)

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A trio of secretive Russian satellites launched earlier this year has released a mysterious object into orbit, sparking interest among space trackers and analysts.

The three satellites, designated Kosmos 2581, 2582 and 2583, launched on a Soyuz-2.1V rocket from Plesetsk cosmodrome early on Feb. 2 (GMT). Since then, the satellites, whose purpose is unknown, have displayed interesting behavior, while in a near-polar orbit roughly 364 miles (585 kilometers) above Earth.

In March, the satellites appeared to be conducting potential proximity operations, or maneuvering close to other objects in space, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and spaceflight activity tracker.

Following this, the U.S. Space Force cataloged a new object in orbit, which was possibly released by Kosmos 2581 on March 18.

Russia has provided no details about the satellites and their mission. Many Kosmos missions are classified.

The released object could be used for a number of objectives, including military experiments, such as satellite inspection or target practice, testing technology for docking or formation flying. It may also be a scientific payload or even the result of an unintentional fragmentation, though this would usually result in numerous pieces of debris.

The Kosmos (or Cosmos) designation has been used by the Soviet Union and later Russia for a very wide range of military and scientific satellites since 1962. The satellites have covered a range of apparent uses, some of which are experimental, secret, or part of military programs, including early ASAT (anti-satellite) tests and satellite inspection, reconnaissance and electronic intelligence.

Satellite trios flying in formation in orbit is not unusual. Both the United States (for example, the Naval Ocean Surveillance System) and China (Yaogan) have launched numerous sets of satellite triplets, many of which are thought to be for electronic intelligence purposes, along with other satellite series.

However, it remains to be seen what the three Kosmos satellites and their new companion will get up to in orbit.


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans; UFO's; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: actofwar; russia; russianaggression
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1 posted on 04/03/2025 8:27:15 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

Time to revive “Rods from God”


2 posted on 04/03/2025 8:30:16 AM PDT by BigFreakinToad (All she is, is cackles in the wind.)
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To: All

Polar orbits are all about recon. It is a major Russian advantage in Ukraine.

Satellite imagery from overhead can be transmitted line-of-sight to analysis centers in St Petersburg essentially in real time.

US satellites imaging Ukraine have to store and wait for pass over NRO in Chantilly for the line-of-site downlink. It’s about 40 mins of delay.

There was a time when there were plans for uplink of low earth orbit satellites to geosync altitudes (23,000 miles) and then across to another geosync vehicle over Chantilly for downlink, but it’s still a few minutes of delay and in the old days, experiments were failing. Dunno if they ever perfected that. Sooo much easier to store and forward that I suspect they didn’t spend that money.


3 posted on 04/03/2025 8:41:26 AM PDT by Owen
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To: Red Badger

Sputnik all over again.


4 posted on 04/03/2025 8:42:48 AM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: Owen

Thanks for the post. I was unaware of our delay vs the Russian smaller delay.


5 posted on 04/03/2025 8:43:59 AM PDT by House Atreides (I’m now ULTRA-MAGA-PRO-MAX)
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To: Red Badger

I still like the idea of “a big ball of goo” satellite.

It creates a large ball of polymer ‘goo’ that is then guided to collide with space junk, most of which is quite small, but moving at a high speed. Being able to change its course, through dozens or hundreds of orbits, each ball of goo snags thousands of known dangerous space debris. Then it collides with a few big pieces before burning it all up in the atmosphere.


6 posted on 04/03/2025 8:51:34 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (If you see "Acheta" protein in a product, know that it has been adulterated with insect protein)
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To: Owen
>>can be transmitted line-of sight

Improvement of the old days of parachute drops from low orbit satellites.

7 posted on 04/03/2025 8:51:49 AM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

How do you control the big ball of goo?..........


8 posted on 04/03/2025 8:54:07 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Wouldn’t Musk have a good time with this! Great idea.


9 posted on 04/03/2025 8:58:52 AM PDT by ryderann
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To: Owen

The latency of the Starlink network is less than 100 milliseconds. Why not use that?


10 posted on 04/03/2025 9:16:25 AM PDT by tarator
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To: Red Badger
The released object could be used for a number of objectives, including military experiments, such as satellite inspection or target practice

Okay let's use it for target practice.

11 posted on 04/03/2025 9:20:44 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: Deaf Smith

https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/30370/why-cant-you-just-parachute-down-right-from-orbit


12 posted on 04/03/2025 9:31:04 AM PDT by Paladin2 ( )
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To: tarator

The LEO satellites are moving very fast, with respect to any Starlink satellite. So you will take your image and then try to find a Starlink satellite that can deal with the doppler shift of the transfer signal, not to mention the fact it is encrypted.

Nah, I’d say no. The recon satellites were not designed with a presumption that Starlink is there, and will not even have the right frequency on their imagery downlink transmitter. All the content would be classified, too, which means the entire Starlink ground team would have to be cleared.

Nice idea, but nah, no way.


13 posted on 04/03/2025 9:31:20 AM PDT by Owen
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To: Red Badger

14 posted on 04/03/2025 9:41:31 AM PDT by algore
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To: Red Badger

15 posted on 04/03/2025 9:41:46 AM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Libloather

It looks like a giant.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpiP_jN1Pv4


16 posted on 04/03/2025 9:44:17 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Red Badger

Orbital EMP device?


17 posted on 04/03/2025 9:45:56 AM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Finish the damned WALL! TRUTH is the new HATE fSPEECH! )
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To: Owen

Starlink has launched satellites in polar orbits. While legacy satellites may never be able to integrate with starlink, seems like new ones can be designed to natively do so. The classified content can be handled through encryption. That’s what encryption is for.


18 posted on 04/03/2025 9:48:33 AM PDT by tarator
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To: JimRed

Maybe an old cosmonaut’s ashes.................


19 posted on 04/03/2025 9:50:53 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

Every Russian satellite is a secret Russian satellite,


20 posted on 04/03/2025 10:09:47 AM PDT by poinq (thics and customs and did not take an oath to the country. And did not follow the country's traditio)
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